St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-27
SOME MONKEY WORK.
It Resulted in the Partial De-
Stpuetion of the Town
of Wakefield,
And Also in Several Street
Shooting ARRAYS Which
Cost One Life.
CAPTURE of the Notorious Pro-
curess, Maud Cassidy,
Wanted at Chicago.
Rough Treatment Of an In
sane Burglar--Reeord OF a
Half-Breed Assassin.
Special to the Globe.

Special to the Globe.
ASHLAND, Wis, Dec. ga mischiev'
Gus monkey burned the little city OF
Wakefield to the ground last night. de
was given the freedom of the Vaude-
vile theater by the proprietor, Mike
O'Brien, and at about midnight he had
a circus with kerosene lamp, the OIL
of which he put upon his hair and then
set himself afire and scattered the
flames about the room. His antics III
the big windows of the building were
watched by crowd. A few minutes
later the entire building was wrapped
in flames and within an hour the fire
fiend had the business portion of the
town in its grasp. Every business
house of consequence was burned
There were no facilities for eXtlngulsh-
ing the flames, and the buildings. all OF
wood, fell an easy prey. There was q
big crowd of hoOdlumS present and
they pillaged the stores as fast as the
doors could be opened and reVolyerS
were fiourished by the drunken crowd,
which was led by liquor taken from the
saloons. 1t was terrible night ana
the helpless StorekeeperS were COM
PEELED to stand by and see their estab-
IiShmentS
LOOTED BY THE THIEVES.
After the elements had destroyed
everything in one block, O'Biicn, the
theater man, aad Tom Lewis, alias Dali
ton. who keeps dance house dive, got
into a row, the latter cursing the for
mer for allowing the monkey to run
loose in his place. 0'Bren became
greatly enraged and shot Lewis twice.
both balls passing through his hips. He
will die. There were several other at
fraYs of this kind. Thh principal
buildings burned were the Vaudeville
tLeater, pOStOffice, X. A. Harris, jew
elry, Bank of Wakefield, saloons of w.
j. Grooms, Cram d james. Olmstead u
Copp, Tobin Bros, Ed Maher's two
buildings, saloon of Mcdonald Bros,
NJ. Mattenthal, clothing, Haywood,
Wescott q Murray. There is not a
dolIa'S worth of insurance on any OF
the property. The loss is varlouSly es-
timated at between $4,000 and $4,000.
''IT WAS A STRANGE SIGHT,"
said a Lake Shore conductor tonight,
''tO see that monkey eaper about in the
big windows of the theater. He had
the freedom of the building, and as L
understand it, he took the lighted
lamps, turned the oil upon his bocy and
then lighted it. He then ran around
the room, scattering the oil i'll every
direction, and in few minutes the
whole building was in flames. There
were large number of toughs i'll the
town and they took advantage of the
occasion and as soon as the flames had
got fair headway, began to loot"
alt was sight never to be forgotten"
said another gentleman. The fellows
went into MettenthaPS clothing store
with guns, firing them as they went,
and came out loaded with plunder
which they deposited in snOwdrifts
near by. l heard tully 300 shots fired.
The whisky secured from the large
number of saloons in the block made
the men perfect demons, and people
who had property stood by aghast.
They were pOWerleSs and made no eff
forts to interfere with what was going
On.''
A desperate fight was made to save the
Sparta house and this was the only
success that was met. The rOughs did
not interfere. The fight between
O'Brien and Tom Lewis was brought
about in this way: Lewis cursed
O'Brien for allowing the monkey the
freedom of his place, damned him in
vigorous language. accusing him of be-
ing the cause of the great calamity.
O'Brien pulled his revolver and shot
Lewis through the groin twice. He
will die. Both men are notorious char
acterS in this section. Lewis right
name is Dalton. He has kept dives in
various places.